England players do not play enough county cricket - Lehmann

Northamptonshire head coach Darren Lehmann has said England players do not play enough county cricket and selectors have overlooked talent in the domestic game.

Lehmann, now in his second year at Wantage Road, is hopeful the ECB will have a better link with the first class counties this season following the humiliating Ashes series defeat this winter.

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Lehmann has spoken with England managing director Rob Key and Test captain Ben Stokes after claiming he had not seen an English selector during his first year in charge.

Northamptonshire's 27-year-old left-hander Saif Zaib was the leading run-scorer in the country last season with 1,425 at an average of just under 65, including six centuries, but was overlooked for a place on the England Lions' winter tour.

"I think you will see a really marked improvement in that regard from the ECB," former Australia batter Lehmann told BBC Look East.

"The [England] players don't play enough county cricket. They should play more but that's not my call.

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"I think the ECB wants to get close to the counties, they don't want to be that matriarch, you feel like they want to make sure all the counties are listened to and that they're getting around to watch as much as they can.

"There's a lot of good county players that could have been on the tour if they'd probably seen and took notice of them a little bit more."

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Of the England XI which lined up for the opening Ashes Test of a disappointing tour Down Under, which ended in a dismal 4-1 defeat, only one made more than four County Championship appearances for their club in 2025.

Opener Ben Duckett played once for champions Notts, and partner Zak Crawley appeared for Kent in four Division Two games.

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Ollie Pope played six games for Surrey but Joe Root and Harry Brook played once for Yorkshire – a game they lost by five wickets at home to Warwickshire in May - and keeper Jamie Smith played just three games for Surrey - though not behind the stumps.

Gus Atkinson made just four Surrey appearances, Brydon Carse one for Durham, Jofra Archer bowled just 18 overs for Sussex and Mark Wood did not play at all for Durham as he continued his recovery from knee surgery.

ECB managing director Rob Key told the BBC's TMS podcast earlier this week he was keen to "deepen the connection" between the national side and the county game and would be launching a new committee to provide feedback on players.

"[Despite what may have been said] our selection isn't done off WhatsApp groups or things like that," Key said.

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"We have a whole scouting network of people across every single game. There's about 10 of them that go into it, we go into analytics, every ball is tracked.

"We are going to have a County Insight Group, run a process, try and pick a couple of people, coaches or directors of cricket, from the First and a couple from the Second Division and meet four or five times a year.

"With no selector at the moment that becomes quite an important brief for the start of the summer in this cycle - there's a massive opportunity for people at the start of this summer.

"We're going to need to use that group to get as much information as possible about potential players we might pick, the players who show they can score against the best bowlers but also be relentless and go on and score big runs."

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'They are a lot more professional than in my day'

There was considerable criticism of England's apparent lack of preparation for the series in Australia, both before and during the tour, with particular focus and controversy around the four-day break in Noosa, Queensland after the first two Tests.

England said the break had been scheduled for more than a year but there were reports of players drinking excessively.

"If they had played those first two Shield games before the first two tests, then played the two Tests on the bounce, they actually needed a week off," added Lehmann, who played five Tests against England during his playing career.

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"They're all adults so they should know where they stand and look after themselves. And they are a lot more professional than we were in our day so I don't subscribe that they carried on too much.

"They're not big drinkers and there's nothing wrong with having a night out. I actually saw a couple of them for a coffee in Noosa and they were fine.

"It's more about the preparation for the Ashes where they didn't play any county cricket in the back end of the summer and then they played a one-day series before the Ashes where they could have played a extra first-class game and that's probably where it's gone wrong.

"They just need to be a bit more diligent in their preparation and what they're trying to do and how they want to play."

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The Test summer on these shores starts with the visit of New Zealand for a three-match series on 4 June with three more Tests to come in a series with Pakistan in August and September.

Lehmann said he expects England to win both series, adding: "They'll play exciting cricket.

"They'll score quickly. The wickets will be flat. They'll oscillate between the two styles.

"They played too aggressive in Australia. The problem is when the wicket does anything.

"They'll rethink how they want to play in different stages, making sure they're prepared as best they can."

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